ENGLAND are nervously trying to persuade themselves that the Australian team at Twickenham today are much better than recent evidence shows.

Forwards coach Graham Rowntree put forward this reverse psychology yesterday even though Australia lost 33-6 to France last Saturday and their team appear considerably inferior to the one beaten here two years ago.

“I don’t buy into this perceived dominance,” said Rowntree. “We are still a very inexperienced forward pack, particularly in the front row where Australia have more than three times as many caps as ours.

“The scary thing about Australia is after that defeat last week there were still many positives for them. They will be reeling, licking their wounds. Teams who come over could lose every game but, if they beat England, it would be a successful series.”

Such talk is familiar enough, as well as being an attempt at avoiding the complacency implied in England’s repeated advantage against the Wallabies in the scrummage.

The scrum has received the same attention as every other week

Forwards coach Graham Rowntree

“The scrum has received the same attention as every other week,” said Rowntree.

“You have to be good at everything in Test rugby.

“ You never know where the next threat is coming from, so you have everything covered. This is another big step.”

After today the steps up become steeper, with the Springboks and All Blacks following in quick succession.

“It’s about time we started beating them all,” said Rowntree. “It would be a real mark of where we are.

“The team Australia put out will be very, very good regardless of what has happened to them recently. To be able to beat them would be a big feather in our cap.”

England captain Chris Robshaw added: “For myself and a lot of us, this is the first time we have played against the Australian national side.

“It’s about stepping up our game because over these next weeks it’s going to get harder and harder. Everyone is going to have to respond.”

For commercial reasons this match is the one annually when England wear their second strip, now ‘regal purple’ . It may be an omen: when they beat Australia at Twickenham in 2010, Chris Ashton’s length-of-the-field try was scored in grey.